BSNL Loses 50,000 Broadband Subscribers in October, Airtel and Jio See Gains: TRAI

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) lost around 50,000 wired broadband subscribers in the month of October, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) latest report suggests. Airtel and Jio gained subscribers, as Airtel Xstream Fiber's user base increased from 2.6 million in September to 2.67 million in October. BSNL, on the other hand, saw a dip in broadband subscriber base from 7.8 million at the end of September to 7.75 million at the end of October. BSNL still continued to rule the wired broadband segment, whereas Reliance Jio topped the wireless broadband segment with 406.36 million subscribers.

The TRAI report for the month of October 2020 shows that BSNL's wired broadband subscriber base reduced from 7.8 million in September to 7.75 million in October. This marked a loss of 50,000 subscribers was seen in one month. Airtel took the second place in the wired broadband space with 2.67 million subscribers, followed by Atria Convergence with 1.74 million subscribers, Reliance Jio with 1.7 million subscribers, and Hathway cable with 1.05 million subscribers at the end of October. Reliance Jio had 1.52 million subscribers in the month of September, that increased to 1.7 million at the end of October.

In the wireless broadband space, Jio emerged at the top with 406.36 million subscribers at the end of October. Airtel came in second with 167.56 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea came in third with 120.49 million subscribers, BSNL followed with 18.12 million subscribers, and Tikona came last with 0.31 million subscribers. BSNL gained a considerable number of subscribers in the wireless segment, as its September numbers ended at 17.03 million subscribers.

In the larger scheme of things, BSNL only captured 3.42 percent of the broadband market share (wired + wireless). Reliance Jio captured the most amount of market share at 55.85 percent and Airtel took the second spot with 22.86 percent market share. Vodafone Idea had 16.5 percent market share at the end of October 2020, and Atria Convergence had 0.24 percent market share.

Are Micromax In 1b, In Note 1 good enough to take the brand to the top in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.